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Griffin Canning took the mound for the San Diego Padres to open the first game of the first series of their nine-game road trip and was looking to have a solid outing. He was unable to do that despite the Padres handing him a one-run lead in the first inning and San Diego lost the opening game of the three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles, 7-3. Canning labored through five innings, allowing seven runs on six hits with five walks and six strikeouts. He allowed two home runs, which resulted in three of the seven runs for the Orioles and never looked comfortable in his outing. Canning walked the leadoff batter in three of his five innings and only faced the minimum number of batters in two of his five innings.

Despite the short outing from his starter, Padres manager Craig Stammen only needed Wandy Peralta and David Morgan to cover the final three innings of the game. Peralta threw 1.2 scoreless innings and allowed one hit with two walks and three strikeouts. Morgan threw 1.1 scoreless innings and allowed one hit with two striekouts.

The San Diego offense scored a run in the first and second innings of the game and got contributions from most of the lineup. Jackson Merrill, Ty France, Will Wagner and Freddy Fermin were the only starters not to record hits in the game. France did score a run and Wagner drew two walks. The biggest story on the offensive side was Manny Machado finishing the game 2-for-4 with a run scored. Both of his hits were doubles that were hit into the outfield gaps, splitting the outfielders. It could mean Machado is seeing pitches better, is more prepared for velocity or is maybe giving the analytics a shot. Either way, if he can continue driving the ball throughout the rest of the series and road trip the Padres should benefit. Gavin Sheets was the other bright spot for the San Diego offense. He finished his day 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBI.

The Padres will have a chance to even the series with the Orioles today at 1:05 p.m.

Padres News:

• Prior to the game against the Orioles the Padres announced Xander Bogaerts was returning from paternity leave and that outfielder Bryce Johnson was designated for assignment.

• Samad Taylor has made it back to the big leagues and he appears to be taking full advantage of the opportunity. He recorded another hit in the series opener against Baltimore and has given some life to a fledgling San Diego offense.

• There is typically a reason or a story behind why someone got a tattoo and the Padres players are no different. Some want to commemorate significant events; others just thought the idea was cool. Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribunecompiled some information on the tattoos in the San Diego clubhouse.

Baseball News:

• Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski completed a “Maddux” throwing a complete game on less than 100 pitches, with a 15-strikeout shutout performance against the Philadelphia Phillies.

• Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara reached 1,000 career strikeouts in an 8-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

• The Boston Red Sox clobbered the visiting Texas Rangers in a 10-1 at Fenway Park.

• The Chicago White Sox dominated the defending World Series champions and beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-2.

• Yordan Alvarez hit two home runs and recorded six RBI in the first inning to lead the Houston Astros past the Kansas City Royals.

• Atlanta Braves pitcher Spencer Strider left the game in the fourth inning due to right shoulder and elbow soreness and the New York Mets won the game, 7-5.

• The Arizona Diamondbacks handed the Cincinnati Reds a two-run loss.

• The Seattle Mariners scored 10 runs in a dominating 10-2 win over the Washington Nationals.

Here's what happened in Mets Land on Friday, in case you missed it...

• Bo Bichette homers twice, Juan Soto adds another as Mets top Braves, 7-5
• Nolan McLean gets through "risky" second inning vs. Braves to give Mets crucial length
• Mets ask Devin Williamsfor a four-out save and closer delivers against Braves
• Francisco Lindorcompletes two-inning simulated game, still expected to return in June
• Mets Notes: Plan for Tobias Myers; could Sean Manaea be a traditional starter this season?
• Mets encouraged by Kodai Senga's latest rehab appearance, but "want to see it again" 
• Jared Youngcontinues to be a catalyst in middle of Mets’ offense
• WATCH: Mets Prospect Highlights: Nick Morabito, Chris Suero, Colin Houck
  

The most difficult time in an MLB career is now for Guardians’ young hitters.

Baseball is a game of constant adjustments, and those adjustments are almost never more volatile than after a new MLB player has their first hot stretch in the show. Today we’re going to discuss what to expect going forward with some of the young hitters on the Guardians roster this season. Specifically, we’re going to look at the youngest hitters currently playing almost every day on the roster: Chase DeLauter, Travis Bazzana, Brayan Rocchio, Angel Martínez, and Kyle Manzardo. In looking at them, I’d like to take you through the early careers of some veteran players that ended up becoming superstars, and consistent MVP contenders. We’re also going to break down results vs. process and what to look for that may cause concern.

First, let’s look at some examples of some modern superstars in their rookie season, and a very recent Rookie of the Year winner. For this section, we’re just going to look at the results because this will establish an important premise we need for later on. First, let’s take a look at Bryce Harper in 2012. Bryce Harper started the first 8 games of his career with a .924 OPS. The next 12 games it was .625. The next 20 games it was 1.144. For the next 55 games his OPS was .563, and he finished that season putting up a 1.044 OPS in the final 44 games. We can already see that even a multitime MVP/All-Star/Silver Slugger winner that broke into the league as one of the most highly anticipated MLB prospects in a very long time had a lot of ups and downs in their first season.

Another MVP and Rookie of the Year recipient, Ronald Acuña Jr., had a similarly up and down Rookie of the Year campaign. He got off to a very hot start, hitting to a 1.289 OPS in his first 5 games, but quickly cooled off. In his next 22 games, his OPS was only .609, and in the 16 games after that it was a respectable, but underwhelming for the young star, .764. After that, he went on a tear over the next 53 games, with an OPS of 1.134, before cooling off for the final 15 games with an OPS of just .652.

Lastly, let’s look at the reigning AL Rookie of the Year winner Nick Kurtz’s 2025 season. Unlike the others, he got off to a very slow start. In his first 23 games, his OPS was just .558. The next 22 games it was 1.107, and the 22 after that it was an unbelievable 1.478. He then cooled off for a bit. His next 14 games only saw him have an OPS of .693. The next 17 games it was 1.227. After that, for 15 games he cooled off again down to an OPS of .708, and he ended the season with a 1.228 OPS in the final 4 games.

In just these three examples, we see extreme swings within each hitter. Sometimes lasting only a few weeks, but sometimes lasting multiple months. We can’t determine a lot from OPS results on their own because they are incredibly noisy. A lot of factors can cause big swings in a sample size even as large as 20 games. It could be having several games in a 20 game stretch where you face the top 2 pitchers in every team’s starting rotation. It could be the hitter overswinging or chasing out of the zone more. It could even be a week of cold humid weather causing a handful of balls that would be extra base hits under normal conditions getting knocked down by the wind and being outs instead.

All of this is to say that these OPS results alone don’t tell us much apart from “it might be time to take a look under the hood and see if we’re doing something wrong,” and these examples are just to illustrate that even the best hitters go through major ups and downs, especially as rookies.

There’s going to be a lot of data to look at coming up, so first I want to briefly explain how it’s all organized. For each of the five Guardians players we are looking at today, I’ve given each their own table. Each player has had their season broken down into 4-5 buckets of games purely by OPS results. For each bucket, we are going to be highlighting 7 statistics (not including the OPS) for each bucket. The stats are grouped into 4(ish) layers. We start with Layer 1: Swing Decisions. Next is Layer 2: Contact Ability. The next layer I have listed as Layer 2.5: Bat Speed. This is put between layers 2 and 3 because it doesn’t truly fit with either one, but is an important bridge that connects the two layers. Next is Layer 3: Contact Quality, and last is Layer 4: Results. Now that we have established how all the data we will be looking at is organized and what statistics we are looking at, I will put the tables for all 5 players below. The individual statistics will have definitions and explanations at the end for clarity.

We can see that each of these young hitters is going through ups and downs. The first thing I think we can all see is the difference between the true rookies (Chase and Bazzana) and the young hitters that already have a few seasons under their belts. We can see in general that the rookies’ numbers are overall significantly more erratic, and the stat where that stands out the most in my mind is bat speed.

Both Chase’s and Bazzana’s average bat speeds swing wildly, with differences up to and even over 2 mph. But if we look at Manzo, Angel, and Rocchio, they are consistently within a 1 mph range. If we look in layers 1 and 2, we can see that the 3 young hitters with more experience have similarly clustered numbers in those categories, with maybe 1 outlier, and this is where we can also see Chase separating himself from Bazzana a bit. 

Chase’s Whiff and Chase rates in his most recent 3 buckets are all much more tightly clustered and a decent chunk lower than his first bucket, but Bazzana is seeing some spiking in chase and in whiff for his most recent two buckets. I believe this already illustrates very well how volatile early career MLB adjusting is for hitters, and shows how just a couple seasons of experience flattens out underlying metrics quite a bit.

This is not to say that an even more experienced hitter won’t go on a stretch where their chase rate skyrockets 12 points, but more that those outliers become more rare. This example, though, is the first of one of our previously listed types of slumps – one caused by plate approach deterioration.

When talking about our Rookie of the Year examples earlier, we mentioned one potential type of slump we see hitters go through is because they start over swinging or chasing more out of the zone. That could be considered a plate approach deterioration slump. In bucket four, Travis Bazzana’s Chase% and Whiff% have both increased significantly, and we see the OPS result within that bucket has gotten quite poor. It would be reasonable to think that’s a likely cause of the slump. Swinging at more pitches out of the zone leads to more swings and misses, and when you do make contact on those pitches, it is often weaker contact. Less and weaker contact in general leads to fewer walks and hits, and that of course leads to lower OPS numbers.

Is this cause for concern? Well, the short answer is probably not. Ultimately, this bucket is just 10 games. This very easily could just be a bad couple weeks, and he could make some adjustments and get the numbers back under control. Variations like this in a rookie season are incredibly normal, and they don’t really become a concern unless the same numbers do not improve or get worse over an extended period of time.

Now that we’ve seen how approach deterioration can lead to a slump, we can move on to the next layer. If we look at Chase’s second and third buckets, we can see Chase% difference is only 0.5, and Whiff% difference is only 2.6. The Z-Contact% difference is a bit larger here, but both numbers are still fairly close together. So the approach looks very consistent, but the OPS difference is massive. Over 850 points! What’s going on here?

This brings us to our next potential type of slump – a contact quality slump. When looking at these two buckets, we can see the Hard-Hit% difference is massive, as is the average exit velocity, and the xwOBA difference. What we’re seeing here is significantly worse contact quality. This is where it gets a little less visible in traditional stats. We see the lower velocity, but what causes it? This is where variance comes into play. Sometimes in baseball, being an extra 5-10 milliseconds too late or too early can be the difference between a home run and a foul ball. Sometimes, the contact point on the ball being just a few millimeters to high or too low can be the difference between a HR and a warning track flyout, or the difference between a hard low liner between infielders for a hit and a ball hit into the ground more that loses enough speed for the fielder to reach it and get a forceout. These small differences aren’t always immediately obvious either, but being just out of sync with your swing path or slightly off timing wise can result in massive differences in results as well. 

So what we may be seeing here is Chase was maintaining a consistent approach over the span of both buckets, but in the second bucket the swings started being a lot more flush with the ball and resulted in much higher contact quality and better results.

The last example I want to look at today is Manzardo’s bucket two and three. We look at his swing decisions, and he’s chasing 5.5% less. Now we look at contact ability: he’s swinging and missing 11.1% less and making significantly more contact in the zone. The contact quality looks significantly better too. Hard-Hit% skyrockets, average exit velocity takes a big jump, and xwOBA increases by nearly 100 points. This looks like a huge improvement across the board, but when we look at the OPS, it’s actually gone down almost 100 points. How is that possible?

Well this brings us to the final example of slumps we see – a luck slump. Sometimes in this sport, you can do everything right and still not see successful results in the box score. Now we’re looking more at the factors that are largely considered out of the hitter’s control – things like strong winds or exact batted ball placement. Sometimes, a hitter will hit a long flyball that on a normal day is a home run, but because it’s extremely humid or cold and windy, the ball just dies on the warning track. Other times, a batter might hit a scalding line drive, and a fielder will make a diving catch and rob the hitter of a hit or even an extra base hit.

When we look at those two Manzardo buckets, this type of result is consistent with these and similar factors, and ultimately these are the type of slumps that should be the least concerning. What we’re effectively saying here is the hitter is doing everything in their power very well, but just hasn’t gotten positive results. For some, this can feel like the most annoying type of slump because it really is largely out of the hitter’s control. But since it is outside of the hitter’s control, all you can do is hold the line and hope the luck swings back your way.

With young hitters, we see a lot less consistency in layers 1 and 2, and we see that especially in the rookie hitters. Now I have one more data table to share. This one is by far my favorite. I’m not going to go in depth on this data as much as the previous set, but I want to share this to illustrate the larger point. The next table is from José Ramírez’s 2024 campaign.

It is obviously incredibly unfair to hold most other players to the standard of José Ramírez, but I think his buckets here are a great example of how as good hitters develop and learn the league, you start to see layers 1 and 2 have much tighter distributions. Better hitters will have very few outliers in these layers, and you start to see a lot more variance in layer 3. We see this trend beginning to show itself also in the non rookie hitters we looked at before.

So what should we expect from these young hitters going forward? For the rookies, it’s very possible we see a lot of ups and downs going forward. After all, that’s what happened with the three Rookie of the Year winners we looked at before. One of the most important things we’ve learned is that not all of the downs are created equally. The next time we see one of these hitters going into a little bit of a downswing, we can break it down, see what type of slump we’re looking at, and determine how concerning the slump is.

I believe that as long as the young hitters can stay focused on getting that consistency in their approach and can minimize the layer 1 and 2 slumps, they’re taking a very important first step into solidifying themselves as legitimate big leaguers.

Stats:

Chase%: The percentage of pitches a batter sees outside the ABS strike zone that they swing at

Whiff%: The percentage of pitches a batter swings at and does not make contact

Z-Contact%: The percentage of pitches in the ABS strike zone a batter makes contact with when swinging

Hard-Hit%: The percentage of batted balls with exit velocities of 95 mph or higher

Last week, I did my best to quantify how the Cardinals’ minor league pitching talent was developing so far this year. When looking at both team level statistics and individual breakouts, I concluded that 2026 has been a net positive for the pitching pipeline. Today, I want to do the same review for the Cardinals’ minor league hitters following the same structure.

Team Statistics Overview

For the team level statistics, I am focusing on age, K%, BB%, and isolated slugging. The average age is weighted by the number of plate appearances. 

There has been an explosion of home runs at the four lowest levels of the minor leagues, so I also looked at leaguewide statistics to normalize the Cardinals performances. 

Changes in Prospect Grades

I am highlighting players that, in my opinion, have significantly changed their prospect grade based on their performance this year. My intent was to be very conservative about moving players since we are still relatively early on in the year. For example, Joshua Baez is having an impressive season in the power department but has not answered questions around his contact ability. For me, he is performing as expected for a player that was ranked in the top-50 on many of the national prospect lists. I am also only focused on players that, in my opinion, are roughly top-50 overall prospects in the organization. Tre Richardson III is obliterating the Midwest League and has obviously improved his prospect status, but he is not listed here as I do not believe he has reached “real prospect” territory. 

Overall, the goal remains to determine if, as a whole, the hitting prospects in the Cardinals system are over or underperforming reasonable pre-season expectations. Finally, I am including the FanGraphs preseason ranking for each prospect for reference.

Memphis Redbirds

The first section in the table shows the year-over-year changes to the age, K%, BB%, and HR% for the International League as a whole. The second section of the table shows the Cardinals-specific performance in 2025 and 2026. Finally, the Cardinals vs. League section shows the Redbirds performance relative to the league year-over-year. The scores are scaled so that 100 is average and higher is better. 

The International League environment is much the same as it was last season. The Redbirds have an excellent offense yet again, but this year it is built on power rather than contact. The 2025 Memphis team had contact wizards like Cesar Prieto, Bryan Torres, Jose Fermin, Nathan Church, and JJ Wetherholt propelling them to a strikeout rate 19% better than league average. With that group mostly in St. Louis, the team has seen a massive power uptick going from below league average in isolated slugging to 12% better than the league average. 

Prospects holding steady

Joshua Baez (7), Leonardo Bernal (9), Cesar Prieto (27)

Prospects trending up

Jimmy Crooks (4) will be graduating from the prospect category soon, but he still counts for a few more days. His power explosion in Triple-A has clearly increased his stock. Crooks hit 13 home runs in just 39 games en route to a 151 wRC+ at Memphis. He improved his exit velocity metrics across the board while increasing his Barrel% from 7.9% to an elite 18.2%.  Blaze Jordan (26) has improved his Triple-A wRC+ from 83 to 137 and now looks like a real prospect rather than a potential bench bat. Throughout his minor league career, Jordan has struggled upon initial promotion to a new level and then come back the next year to torch the league before earning another promotion and repeating the process. Hopefully he gets a shot at St. Louis in the second half immediately to start to get the adjustment period underway.  Bryan Torres (47) was never going to get prospect love as a late-20s independent league alum, but he just keeps hitting. Even if he settles in as a bench player, that will be a huge win for the organization.  ZiPS gives him a projected rest-of-season wRC+ of 112, so there is reason to believe the bat can continue to play.

Prospects trending down

Colton Ledbetter (46), acquired in the Brendan Donovan trade as a toolsy lottery ticket, has not been able to make consistent contact. The only player to strike out as much as Ledbetter in Triple-A since 2006 (37%) and go on to have a meaningful major league career was Joey Gallo. 

Springfield Cardinals

Outside of Rainiel Rodriguez, the Springfield roster is lacking any prospect firepower on the offensive side. While the Cardinals are running good strikeout and walk numbers, the isolated slugging is 14% below league average. 

Prospects holding steady

Rainiel Rodriguez (3), Chase Davis (50)

Prospects trending up

With the amount of focus on the Cardinals’ minor league system, it is tough to find an under the radar prospect these days. Ryan Campos (NR) might be the guy. He hasn’t gotten much love from the prospect-watching community.  He is listed at 5’8″, has not hit for power, and has struggled to throw out runners. I think the general lack of loud tools has obscured the fact that Campos can really hit. For reference, here is how Campos’s Double-A stat line stacks up with two former lefty-swinging Springfield Cardinals. 

Prospects trending down

Deniel Ortiz (NR) was injured in the first game of the year and is now back on a rehab assignment. 

Peoria Chiefs

Peoria has had an offensive explosion more than doubling the team ISO year-over-year. The group of hitters is also half a year younger on average. Sure walks are down and strikeouts are up, but just look at that power! 

Prospects holding steady

Jesus Baez (20)

Prospects trending up

Tai Peete (14) has battled injuries but has done enough when on the field to materially improve his stock. His wRC+ has increased from 79 to 117. While he is still striking out more than 30% of the time, he has gotten to a new level in the power department. While there is not publicly available statcast data for the Midwest League, Baseball America has highlighted Peete as one of the players to most improve their exit velocity metrics. This improved contact quality has helped Peete increase his isolated slugging from .187 to .256.  Jack Gurevitch (48) had absurd exit velocity numbers in Palm Beach before being promoted to Peoria. His 50th, 90th, and max exit velocities were all the 99th percentile. Gurevitch has continued to mash at Peoria while also reducing his strikeout rate from 30.5% to 24.1%. He probably needs to get promoted to Double-A and continue mashing to start getting national attention, but the results and the metrics have been exceptional.  Won-Bin Cho (49) is finally hitting for the power (.241 ISO) that made him famous as an amateur. However, he is in his third crack at High-A, so he will have to continue this success in Springfield to entice me to join the bandwagon. 

Prospects trending down

None

Palm Beach Cardinals

Ryan Mitchell is the only top-50 position player prospect currently on the active roster. While the 2026 roster is a bit older than last year’s version, the walk, strikeout, and ISO metrics are all improved relative to the league. 

Prospects holding steady

Ryan Mitchell (13)

Prospects trending up

None

Prospects trending down

Yairo Padilla (8) hurt his shoulder in spring training and has yet to see the field. 

Florida Complex League

Prospects holding steady

Juan Rujano (29)

Prospects trending up

Sebastian Dos Santos (52) and Miguel Hernandez (NR) probably had the most buzz in spring training this year among the group of players coming up from the Dominican Summer League. While both had excellent pro debuts last year, it is hard to get too excited scouting DSL stat lines. Dos Santos is not quite at the Rainiel Rodriguez level from last year, but his 150 wRC+ and six home runs through 26 games are excellent for a middle infielder. Hernandez had a bad first couple weeks, but has been excellent the last month and has wRC+ of 100 with five home runs through 25 games. Both players are setting themselves up for a potential debut in Low-A later this season, which would start to put them on the prospect radar in earnest. 

Prospects trending down

None

Conclusion

All things considered, it has been a pretty solid start to the year for the position player prospects in the system. The excellent showings from Crooks, Jordan, and Torres are already having an impact at the major league level. Campos looks like a future major leaguer in some capacity. The Gurevitch, Peete, Cho power explosion in Peoria has been encouraging. Dos Santos and Hernandez could lead the next wave of international talent. The only real disappointments so far have been the injuries to Padilla and Ortiz. 

Looking at team statistics in the aggregate, the increase in power is substantial. The combined isolated slugging has risen from .124 last year to .171 so far this season. Every team except for Palm Beach is younger than the league average. While strikeouts are up a bit, the system as a whole is still above average on that front as well. 

The Cardinals system has not had the Rainiel Rodriguez or Joshua Baez level breakout from any player yet. Right now, I would give the position player group a passing grade, but there is a lot of baseball to be played. How will Ortiz and Padilla (assuming he is back at some point) finish the year? Can Dos Santos or Hernandez earn a shot at Palm Beach? Will Emanuel Luna or another player from the DSL make a statement in their debut season? If some of these higher-upside players can make strides in the second half, we will be feeling much better about the position player depth heading into the offseason.  

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The New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays clash this afternoon in AL East action, and I'm expecting a clean first inning for both starters. 

That matchup will headline my top MLB picks today for the "no run first inning" and "yes run first inning" markets.

Here are my best YRFI picks and NRFI predictions for Saturday, June 13. 

Best NRFI/YRFI predictions today

Pick	Odds
/ - NRFI	-127
/ - NRFI	-117
/ - NRFI	-104

Yankees at Blue Jays: NRFI (-130)

Today's pitching matchup screams value in the NRFI market. Cy Young candidate Cam Schittler takes the ball for the New York Yankees, and he hasn't allowed a run in the first inning in 10 straight appearances. The youngster also owns a 3.14 xERA across the last month, and a 1.90 FIP on the road. 

As for the Toronto Blue Jays, they counter with Kevin Gausman. He owns a 10-4 NRFI/YRFI record in 2026, and Gausman has been brilliant at home, posting a 2.63 xFIP while walking just 0.99 hitters per nine innings. 

The Yankees have failed to score in the first inning in three straight games, while the Jays have scored in the opening frame just once in their last six games. This offense usually takes time to get going, and Schlittler often comes out sharp.

I'll play this pick up to -140. 

• Time: 3:07 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: YES Network, Sportsnet

Cubs at Giants: NRFI (-119)

Reliever turned starter Ben Brown gets the call tonight for the Chicago Cubs, and he's been lights out. The righty has a 5-1 NRFI/YRFI record, and he's riding a three-game streak without giving up any runs in the first inning. Additionally, Brown owns a stellar 2.43 xERA over his last 12.1 innings. 

On the other side, San Francisco Giants starter Trevor McDonald has collected a 5-2 NRFI/YRFI record this season, and while he's had his issues at times lately with a 4.21 FIP over his last two starts, the Cubbies aren't at their best offensively, carrying an ISO well under .200 while averaging just 3.8 runs per game across their last six. Chicago hasn't scored in the first in nine straight, while San Fran hasn't come across the plate in the opening frame in four in a row. 

I'll play this pick up to -140. 

• Time: 10:05 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Marquee Sports Network, NBC Sports Bay Area

Diamondbacks at Reds: NRFI (-111)

The Arizona Diamondbacks will send Michael Soroka to the mound here, and he's more or less steered clear of trouble in the first. He carries a 9-4 NRFI/YRFI record to go along with a 3.00 xERA over his previous two appearances. The Cincinnati Reds are batting just .222 in the first, and haven't scored in the opening frame in six consecutive games. 

As for the Cincinnati Reds, they counter with Rhett Lowder. While he's not as reliable, Lowder has kept scoreless frames in the first in back-to-back outings, and the Diamondbacks aren't exactly thriving offensively out of the gates. They've failed to score in the first in three straight contests. 

I'll play this pick up -130. 

• Time: 4:10 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Reds.TV, DBacks.TV

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

There wasn’t a time when we got to see all of the regular season games on TBS or the Fox family of sports networks. There were always carveouts, but always for another cable channel or an over-the-air network. Basic cable was how we saw TBS, so moving to ESPN or one of the networks just meant you didn’t get Skip Caray. But now it’s Apple and ESPN and Peacock and Netflix. The Braves and MLB make a good deal of money off this. I don’t want to stand in front of the Braves making money. But that’s about 100 bucks a month with Braves.tv to see every game. To see it legally, that is.

So how much would MLB charge me to see all of the games? I mean, could we get a MLB package that lets us navigate the carveouts? Something like a “Braves.tv Plus” or some such. Would they take $50 a year? That would be present deal of 100 dollars for 140 games and Braves+ would be another 50 dollars for the other 22 games. I ask myself every time we have Apple+ game. So now I’m asking you all. Is there someone out there buying all these packages?

SAN FRANCISCO — Raise your hand if you knew that by mid-June, Javier Assad and Ben Brown would be the saviors of the Cubs starting rotation.

I better not see any hands because you did not know. I did not know. No one knew.

Assad had his second straight outstanding outing — both against the Giants. Friday evening at Oracle Park, Assad threw six strong innings, allowing three hits and one run, and Michael Busch’s three-run “splash hit” home run was the big blow offensively in a 5-1 Cubs victory. Hey look, a baby winning streak — two games! It’s the first time the Cubs have won consecutive games since May 27 and 28 in Pittsburgh. And it was the Cubs’ first win in San Francisco since 2024, as they got swept at Oracle Park in a three-game series last August.

The game began as a pitcher’s duel. Assad retired nine straight Giants after a leadoff single in the first. The Cubs had just one baserunner over those first two innings on a Seiya Suzuki double. He reached third but was stranded. While all that was going on, Giants catcher Daniel Susac was challenging pitches — quite a few of them. He challenged five times, got four of them correct, and three times a ball was overturned resulting in strike three on a Cubs hitter.

The Cubs finally broke through in the fourth. Busch led off with a walk. He was forced at second b Ian Happ.

Suzuki’s double to deep left-center scored Happ to make it 1-0 Cubs [VIDEO].

Suzuki took third on the throw to the plate. That was important because it resulted in the second Cubs run of the inning on this sac fly by Nico Hoerner [VIDEO].

The Cubs had another multi-run inning in the fifth. Carson Kelly led off with a walk. One out later Alex Bregman doubled, with Kelly stopping at third.

Then Busch launched his splash hit home run [VIDEO].

Here are the numbers on that blast [VIDEO].

Assad continued dealing, including making this play (overturned from “safe” to “out” on review) on a ball that went off his leg in the sixth. He struck out five [VIDEO].

Here’s more on Assad’s outing [VIDEO].

And some historical perspective on Assad’s night from BCB’s JohnW53:

Javier Assad pitched six shutout innings, after having pitched 6.1 without giving up a run in his relief appearance Sunday.

There have been 115 instances since 1901 of a Cub pitching at least two straight games with six innings and no runs.

Assad is just the ninth to do in with a start and in relief — and the first since Monk Dubiel on June 27 and July 2, 1950. Dubiel pitched the final 7.1 innings of a 3-2 loss at home vs. the Cardinals, then threw a complete game in a 16-0 romp at Cincinnati.

The previous eight, in chronological order: Carl Lundgren (1907), Guy Bush (1927), Charlie Root (1929), Lon Warneke (1934), Larry French (1936), Emil Kush and Paul Erickson (both 1946). They pitched between 14.1 (Erickson) and 17.1 innings (Root). Larry French pitched 12.1 innings, the same as Assad, in two relief outings in 1941.

Hoby Milner threw a 1-2-3 seventh, helped out by a really nice tag by Michael Busch on Willy Adames. Adames was called safe, but that was overturned on review [VIDEO].

Trent Thornton, just back from paternity leave (Congratulations!), threw a 1-2-3 eighth. Then Bryce Eldridge, one of MLB’s top prospects who the Giants called up about a month ago, and who hit a walkoff slam for them Wednesday, homered with one out in the ninth to spoil the Cubs’ shutout bid.

Thornton retired the next two Giants by strikeout. Here’s the final out, a K of Rafael Devers [VIDEO].

That was another satisfying win. Great pitching and five of the Cubs’ six hits were for extra bases. Here’s Busch on his home run [VIDEO].

The last two games, I hope, give the Cubs something to build on as they try to dig out of the 8-22 hole they were in. The way they played in all facets of the game is encouraging. And I mentioned Ben Brown above as someone who’s helped stabilize the rotation — and he’ll start Saturday night’s game in San Francisco. Trevor McDonald goes for the Giants. Game time is 9:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.

Triple-A: Memphis (Cardinals) 10, Norfolk Tides 2

The Tides scored first in the game, with Enrique Bradfield’s leadoff walk turning into a run after a stolen base and an RBI single hit by Heston Kjerstad. Unfortunately, Norfolk’s starter, Trace Bright, had the opposite of a shutdown inning, allowing Memphis to score five runs in the next half-inning. Bright’s day ended after 4.2 innings with six runs allowed. Things did not improve from there.

There were a pair of errors as well, including one by shortstop José Barrero. He’s cooled off substantially after his scorching April, now with a .779 OPS and 11 errors committed.

On the plus side, the guy Creed Willems just keeps on hitting. Two singles and a walk across four plate appearances in the game, bumping his season batting line to .279/.368/.495. That looks good. I don’t know what the Orioles are going to do with him, but that looks good.

Box score.

Double-A: Altoona (Pirates) 10, Chesapeake Baysox 8

The Baysox made this one interesting later on, scoring a run in the eighth and three in the ninth and ending up with the tying run at the plate with nobody out. They could not get any closer, though. They’d been dug too much of a hole by a few of their pitchers, starting with my honorary hyphenated cousin, Juaron Watts-Brown, who was hit for five runs (four earned) in only three innings. Juan Rojas, once notable for being in the Jorge López trade, gave up two runs in an inning. Chesapeake’s pitchers gave up 15 hits and eight walks overall. Ouch.

Not much of the offense had the prospects of note here contributing to it. My guy Aron Estrada took an 0-4, striking out twice. Thomas Sosa had a double in four at-bats. Late in the game, Ethan Anderson pinch hit; he didn’t make anything happen. One guy who did make things happen for Chesapeake was outfielder Douglas Hodo, who homered twice. He’s 25 at Double-A, so other prospects are far ahead of him in the system, but the .922 OPS in 12 games so far is nice for him.

Box score.

High-A: Brooklyn (Mets) 13, Frederick Keys 4

23-year-old righty Yeiber Cartaya has been on a good run since starting the season with the Keys. This one, however, was not good. He walked four guys and gave up five hits in a four inning outing, with six runs (five earned) surrendered.

Frederick was never in the game from that point onward, and only a late three-run home run hit by Ike Irish in the eighth inning kept this from being a total waste. The Irish homer was his ninth of the season. He was also credited with an outfield assist, nailing a runner at third base from right field. Nice work. Wehiwa Aloy and Victor Figueroa were among those who stayed hitless. All three of these guys have an OPS of at least .829, so hopefully this game is just a blip.

Box score.

Low-A: Delmarva Shorebirds 9, Columbia (Royals) 6

We’ve finally got a winner here! The Shorebirds offense made sure this one ended up in the win column as they combined 11 hits and 12 walks. That’s a lot of traffic on the bases; the team was 5-17 with RISP and still managed to leave 13 men on base. It didn’t hurt them.

On base all six times that he batted was Jaiden Lo Re, a fifth round pick out of his Arizona high school last year. Lo Re recently joined the Shorebirds after mostly romping through the Florida Complex League. His night includes two hits, four walks, and two stolen bases. He is just seven games into his time with Delmarva, but for now the 19-year-old has a .975 OPS. Between the two levels, he’s walked 17 times while only striking out 10 this season. Maybe there’s another guy following the Nate George path. Lo Re did commit one of the four Delmarva errors. Low-A is a long way from the majors.

Two other Shorebirds also had multi-hit games. One was Elvin Garcia, also 19, who had two singles and a triple in the game. First baseman Miguel Rodríguez also had three hits.

Starting pitcher Christian Rodriguez also deserves a shout-out here, as he struck out nine batters over a 6.1 inning start. Rodriguez, a 2024 draft pick, is 24 years old and only got to make his debut with an affiliate this year. That’s old for the level. He has a 3.43 ERA after this start and has struck out 70 batters in 57.2 innings. Next time someone gets promoted out of Frederick’s rotation, maybe he’ll move up.

Box score.

Saturday’s Scheduled Games

• Norfolk: vs. Memphis, 6:35. Starter: Christian Herberholz
• Chesapeake: at Altoona, 6:00. Starter: Evan Yates
• Frederick: at Brooklyn, 6:00. Starter: JT Quinn
• Delmarva: at Columbia, 6:05. Starter: Denton Biller

The news that the team got on Adolis Garcia was probably the worst news they could get.

Even with the recent uptick in Garcia’s hitting, right field was still something of a weakness for the team. He wasn’t hitting much, but his defense was an outright asset to have. Not having him available for (likely) the remainder of the season means that plans need to be scrambled to not let that new weaker weakness get any worse.

The plan for now looks to be a platoon of Gabriel Rincones and Derek Hill. Both have their strengths at the plate, but is that the ideal option for the team? There has been plenty written and said about the dearth of good right handed hitting outfielders in the game, which now means everyone knows the Phillies have a glaring need to address if they look to the trade market.

Which brings us to our question of the day. Which is the better option in the scope of the entire season: a platoon of Rincones and Hill, or a trade for a veteran bat? The platoon is the obvious choice moving forward, likely until the days before the trade deadline. If it’s working, it might make that kind of trade less a priority. Yet if both are struggling at doing their jobs, maybe an upgrade for Rincones and Hill is the new top idea for the team.